I Started With a 10-Step Routine as a Complete Beginner — I Lasted Four Days

The first time I tried to “get into skincare,” I did what a lot of beginners apparently do: I found a detailed routine online — the kind with numbered steps, specific product categories for each one, and a recommended order — and bought everything on the list in one go. Double cleanse, toner, essence, two different serums, a sheet mask, eye cream, moisturizer, a overnight treatment, and sunscreen. Ten things, used in a specific sequence, morning and night.

Day one, I did all ten steps. It took close to fifty minutes between the morning and evening versions combined, and I remember feeling genuinely accomplished — like I’d finally “started” something I’d been meaning to do for a long time. Day two, also all ten, though it felt like more of a chore. Day three, I skipped the sheet mask because I was tired. Day four, I skipped two more steps. By day five, I did the same single cleanser-and-moisturizer thing I’d been doing before any of this started, and didn’t touch the other eight products again for months.

The Part That Actually Surprised Me Later

I want to be clear about what happened next, because it’s the part that took me a long time to notice: those eight unused products sat in a drawer for months, and during that time, nothing about my skin got worse. I’d expected — without really articulating it — that abandoning “the routine” meant abandoning progress, going back to square one, undoing whatever the four days had done. Nothing seemed to undo. My skin was just… the same as it had been, the same as it was before any of this.

When I eventually came back to skincare — a separate post in this series covers the specific reason, a trip where I borrowed a friend’s cream cleanser — I started with something much smaller: a cleanser and a moisturizer, used consistently, with sunscreen added not long after. Three things. Within a few weeks, I noticed more of a difference from those three things, used consistently, than I had from any of the four days of the ten-step version.

What I Actually Changed

The honest version of “what changed” is almost entirely about starting point, not about any specific product being better than another. Instead of researching “the best beginner routine” and assembling everything it recommended, I started with whatever felt sustainable enough that I genuinely couldn’t imagine skipping it — which, for me, turned out to be just two things at first, with a third (sunscreen) added once the first two felt automatic rather than effortful.

I also stopped thinking of the eight abandoned products as “wasted” or as evidence I’d failed at skincare. A few of them, much later, did end up getting used — not because I’d “graduated” to needing them, but because by that point I had a baseline routine that was genuinely automatic, and adding one more thing to an established habit felt completely different from adding one more thing to a routine that was already at its limit on day one.

The Products That Actually Earned Their Spot

Same format as the rest of this series — and this time, specifically the three that survived being a complete beginner, not the other seven.

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser

This is about as unglamorous a starting point as skincare gets, and that’s sort of the point — it’s mild, it’s been around forever, and it was never going to be the product I’d feature in a “routine reveal.” As the first of three steps, though, it had one job: be simple enough that washing my face didn’t feel like the beginning of a longer process I needed to brace for. It did that job completely, every single day, which turned out to matter more than anything more specialized would have.

Vanicream Moisturizing Cream

Fragrance-free, minimal ingredient list, and — like the cleanser — not something that shows up in exciting routine content. As a second step, it asked nothing extra of me: no waiting for absorption before the next thing, because for the first few weeks there wasn’t a next thing. Just cleanser, then this, done. The lack of anything notable to say about it is, I think, exactly why it was the right product to start with.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch SPF 100+

This came a bit after the first two, once cleanser-and-moisturizer felt automatic rather than like “doing my routine.” Adding a third step to an already-automatic two-step habit felt completely different from the original ten-step list — it was one new thing layered onto something that no longer required any willpower, rather than one-tenth of a long list that required willpower for every single piece.

What Happened to the Other Seven Products

For the sake of completeness: most of them, I never went back to. A couple did eventually get used, much later, once the three-step routine had been automatic for long enough that adding something extra felt like an addition rather than a replacement of the whole system. None of this happened according to any plan — I didn’t “graduate” to a four-step or five-step routine on any schedule. Some products just sat there until either I had a specific reason to reach for them, or I eventually accepted I wasn’t going to and didn’t feel bad about that either.

Two Habits I Had to Unlearn

Treating step count as a measure of seriousness

I think I associated a longer routine with being more committed to “taking care of my skin,” in some general sense — as if starting small meant I wasn’t really trying. Three things, done consistently for months, ended up being a more serious skincare routine by any practical measure than ten things done for four days, even though it would have looked less impressive as a list.

Treating the first attempt as a referendum on whether skincare was “for me”

When the ten-step routine fell apart after four days, I didn’t think “that specific routine was too much” — I thought “I guess I’m not someone who does skincare,” and didn’t try again for months. The actual lesson was much narrower than the conclusion I drew from it.

What My Routine Actually Looks Like Now

Questions I Get Asked a Lot

Is a multi-step routine ever a bad idea for a beginner?
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with more steps — my issue was specifically with starting there, before any of it was habitual. If someone genuinely enjoys a longer routine from day one and it sticks, that’s a different situation than mine was.

How do I know when to add another step?
For me, it wasn’t really a “when” I planned — it was more that adding sunscreen happened to occur to me once cleanser and moisturizer no longer felt like a task. I don’t think there’s a specific timeline that’s right for everyone, but “the current steps feel automatic” seemed like a more useful signal than any number of weeks.

What should I do with products I bought but don’t use?
Mine mostly just sat there, and a couple eventually got used much later. I don’t think there’s anything productive about feeling bad about unused products, beyond maybe being a bit more cautious about buying a lot at once next time — which, in my case, was the actual lesson.

Is it normal to “fail” at skincare the first time you try?
Based on my own experience — I think “fail” might be the wrong word for what happened, even though it’s what it felt like at the time. A specific routine didn’t fit my life. That’s different from “skincare isn’t for me,” even though those felt identical for a few months.

The Actual Takeaway

The ten-step routine wasn’t wrong because of anything about the products in it — it was wrong because it was the starting point, for someone with no existing habit to attach it to. Three steps, done every day, turned out to be a bigger commitment in practice than ten steps done for under a week, even though it looked like less on paper the entire time.

If you’re starting from nothing, it might be worth resisting the urge to start with everything — not because more steps are bad, but because “everything, starting today” and “everything, eventually, built on something that already happens” are very different things, and only one of them has much chance of still being true in a month.

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